Family Meal Plans for Weight Loss & Health

With hectic schedules, nutritious meals are often not a priority. Time constraints, family budgets, and convenience get in the way.
With a few staple items, your family can enjoy delicious heart healthy and weight loss family meal plans in minutes. Let's examine how to accomplish this feat.

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Eating Healthy Everyday

With our busy schedules, it seems impossible to eat smart. Fast foods, and prepackaged meals seem the perfect option for our extremely hectic lifestyles. Yet, family meal plans for weight loss and health don't have to be an arduous task.

The key to the successful heart healthy and weight loss family meal plans is in the planning. Let's examine some convenient and healthy foods.

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Heart Healthy Kitchen Basics

When planning family meals, it is a great idea to have some heart healthy staple items in your kitchen. This saves time and energy. Keeping meal planning as simple as possible is the key to your family's nutrition success.

These staple items include:

tofu

garlic

almonds

fish - salmon, tuna

olive oil

brown rice

green leafy lettuce

cucumbers

grapefruit

Stocking the fridge and pantry with super foods is also important.

Super foods include:

broccoli

cauliflower

salmon

quinoa

eggs

yogurt

beans - specifically black beans

sweet potatoes

It is important to note that many staple items are also super foods. This is because these super foods are filled with nutritional benefits. Using these basic food items as your main ingredients, it is simple to make delicious, nutritious, heart healthy meals, all in under thirty minutes. For more information on healthy eating, please read "Healthy Snack Ideas for Children."

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Glazed Salmon Steaks with Spicy Sweet Potatoes

Glazed Salmon Steaks: Ingredients:

4 salmon steaks

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup juice from one can chopped pineapple

non stick cooking spray

Spicy Sweet Potatoes: Ingredients

4 sweet potatoes

reduced fat margarine

1 can drained, chopped pineapple

pinch nutmeg

Glazed Salmon: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the maple syrup and pineapple juice in a bowl and whisk thoroughly. Rinse and pat dry salmon steaks. Spray a baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Drench salmon steaks in liquid. Hold steaks over a bowl until they no longer drip, and then place in pan. Using a pastry brush, brush the tops with some of the remaining liquid. Bake for approximately twenty minutes, or until the center of salmon is cooked through.

Spicy Sweet Potatoes: Wash and dry sweet potatoes thoroughly. Pierce with a fork several times. Bake in standard oven or microwave until tender. Once cooked, split down the center of potato. Carefully scoop out the inside of the potatoes and place contents in a bowl. Add 1 teaspoon reduced fat margarine. Add the pineapple, one tablespoon at a time, until desired flavor and consistency is reached. Spoon mixture into sweet potato shells.

Cook quinoa according to package instructions. In a large sauté pan, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add scallions, broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots. Cook, stirring often, until they are bright in color. Add zucchini, mushrooms, and tofu. Continue stirring carefully so the tofu does not crumble. In a separate bowl combine last four ingredients, and mix well. Pour over the vegetable mixture and stir until it reaches the desired thickness. Serve over quinoa. This recipe serves four.

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Stock up on Super Foods

By keeping your pantry and fridge full of super foods, heart healthy and weight loss family meal plans are only a few minutes away. Why not try one of these easy and tasty recipes today? For more information on healthy meals, please read "No & Low Carb Grocery Lists."